Workout of the Day

Sep 06

Is It Okay To Be Competitive?

I get the impression that competitiveness sometimes gets a bad rap in communities like ours. We are intentional about our emphasis on prioritizing your own development, your commitment to the process, and your own progress over getting wrapped up in numbers on the board, who “won” the workout for the day, and score-seeking at the detriment of movement quality.

That being said, I want you to compete.

I believe we’re all competitive, really. It’s more a matter of how it’s expressed.

Healthily expressed, competitiveness stokes your fire to improve yourself, and to pursue equal or better performance than your peers, not because you believe you inherently deserve it more or because you’re uncomfortable with them being better than you, but because someone else’s performance shows you that, with hard work and commitment to the process, you can achieve that (and more), too. Healthily expressed, competitiveness sees victory as a reaffirmation of the value of commitment and grit, and faces defeat as a productive reminder that there’s more to be learned and done. Healthily expressed, competitiveness is thrilled when a peer succeeds, because this is an opportunity to celebrate the victory of a community-member, to learn from their improvements, and to raise the bar on your own efforts.

Competitiveness is a productive impulse unless its overburdened by ego.

Unhealthily expressed, competitiveness clouds or vision of personal improvement, and can only focus on what others have done. Unhealthily expressed, competitiveness leads to fragility, aggression, and seeks to receive victories, not earn them. Unhealthily expressed, competitiveness looks for justification and excuses, not lessons and opportunities.

Competitiveness from our view may not look like what you’ve been told or seen on TV, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. Competition is a valuable tool and a healthy human impulse. Let’s put it to good use.